Last Moments
by Moment For Life
Summary: The Last Moments of Miss. Helga Dahl.


**The Last Moments of Miss Helga Dahl**

A hot tear fell from my eyes down onto my cheek. I could feel its warmth as it trailed downwards. My hair was mattered so much. The cold air made me feel disorientated and my body shook uncontrollably. It wasn't the cold, it was fear. I clung to the rail of the rising ship, my father and my mother close beside me.

I squeezed my eyes closed as I remembered just four days before as I had boarded the ship of dreams in Southampton, believing that anything was possible. My family had travelled to the UK from Norway six months before promising a better life for me. My father had worked all of his life, his back bent from his days grafting and mother had raised me and my sister Dania until my sister had died four months before their trip to England. She had been just six years old. Her death had sent my mother into a deep depression and she now believed herself too old to have another baby.

We had lived in near poverty until we had earnt enough money to pay for travel aboard a ship to the United States. It was the land of the free and dreamers. Where our lives would begin and we would be happier than we would ever imagine. I had boarded Titanic in Southampton, where we had admired the sheer size of the ship. Excitement hung thick in the air even as we were checked for lice.

I had practically skipped down the narrow corridors of third class as we searched for our room. I was the only one of the family to be able to read and write in an understandable manner but then of course, there was a language barrier. My father scolded me terribly for skipping ahead without them and that was when I had caught his eye for the first time. He was Italian, I assumed. His eyes so dark and yet so friendly, his smile the most delightful thing I had ever seen. As soon as our eyes locked, I had fallen in love with him and yet I still never could quite grasp his name.

The slight conversations we had were in broken English and translated by a Hungarian immigrant who had spent two months in Norway picking up pieces of the language to attempt to translate but none of that had mattered to me as I had taken a place in the heart of Fabrizio Di Rossi.

We had danced so openly and happily despite the disgusted looks and scolding from my father, I had fallen in love. I was in his arms and he could dance. His friend Jack seemed to have taught him a thing or two with the way of the ladies. I know other women searched the crowds for him but he had only danced with me.

I had known my father would scold me, possibly even belt me but I would take the punishment just to see those brown eyes once more.

The next time I saw him was below decks when we had been told the ship had struck ice. Papa had felt a shudder, I had been almost thrown from my bunk and I had awaked to find ice cold water had met my feet. I had awoken mother quickly and helped her to dress warmly as I did Papa packed our belongings into the small suitcase which we possessed. Mother wrapped a bed sheet around her body to keep her from cold.

My love had spoken to me in the broken English he possessed, I barely understood but what I did get was that he wanted me to go to America with him, this was his destiny and he loved me enough to take me there with him. My heart had jumped but Papa stopped me, I had begged him and pleaded. My heart torn into a thousand pieces, I had fallen in love but Papa would not allow me to go. Part of me wished to say 'But I am now a woman, I will follow my love' but my Papa would die and my mother would too. Without me, they struggled to understand the language and neither could read.

I could not go. I told him so with a heavy heart. Then he kissed me and this Papa did not stop. His lips were so soft and I had never been kissed before. I trembled and then I cried. I watched his face until it disappeared into the crowds of panicked passengers.

Now I trembled even more. Mother struggled to hold on as the ship tilted into the cruel night. Papa struggled to cling onto her and then she was gone, sliding down the decks until she disappeared into the water. Papa followed seconds later. I wanted to scream but I couldn't. I loved them so much but now I had to fight for myself.

I struggled to breathe the cold air paining my chest so badly. My arms ached, my body weakening. I glanced up to see Jack and his love Rose. She was so beautiful, like an angel above me as I grew weaker. She found my eyes just as I watched her hopelessly. I wished them well. I really did.

My arms strained.

And then I let go.

I screamed until I hit something.

Blackness.


End file.
